


Rebuilding the Barn

by star_maid



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: F/F, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-22
Updated: 2016-08-02
Packaged: 2018-06-10 02:15:45
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,953
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6933961
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/star_maid/pseuds/star_maid
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lapis Lazuli and Peridot are friends now, because I say so.<br/>Written in second person because I'm a filthy Homestuck.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

You are LAPIS LAZULI

The thin pieces of hay merely bend under your weight as you move. Comfort may have been an alien feeling to you, but this seemed better than the eons spent trapped in various ways. The rustling that had interrupted your rest was coming from above you. The timid silence filled the wide barn for a brief time, before a flashlight unceremoniously fell.

Touching down noiselessly on the wooden beams, you scan for any signs of Peridot. Well, everything reeks of her presence, but the gem herself is not visible. The wall of computer screens is on screensaver, just triangles bouncing around. Movement behind the aged couch, and you softly make your way over there. You lean over.

“Hey-”

“AAH!”

That didn't work. You sit down on the couch, bits of hay falling out of your hair. Peridot eases out of being in the fetal position, and stands up with newfound confidence. She walks past you, and stands facing the computer screens. You close your eyes, thinking back to being on the ship. Peridot was different now, her movements less robotic. You open your eyes, finding Peridot looking at you, standing only a foot or two away from your knees. You stare through her, remembering the energy field that kept you prisoner during the months of flight back to this horrid planet. Well, maybe some things had changed with you too.

You meet her eyes, and raise your eyebrows. She probably has something to say, like always.

“Ahem, yes, right…” Peridot stammers, breaking her stance to pace slowly in front of you. “Uh...sorry for waking you”

“It’s fine,” you say. Your eyes wander back to the computers, most of them salvaged from the ship’s wreckage. Messily wired to some of the earth tech that had been lying around, they hummed with the small generator that Peridot had gotten to work.

Peridot follows your gaze to the screens. “I’ve been working on some plans, using materials we have here.”

“Plans for what?”

“Just...things.” She moved the [mid 2000’s ball mouse](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/96/Trackball-Kensington-ExpertMouse5.jpg) and deactivated the screensaver. A terrifying array of weapons showed themselves on the screens, with other objects strewn in the mess of files. “ I want us to be safe, and we aren’t strong enough on our own”

You pick your legs up and lie down on the couch, and Peridot closes all the files. Revealed behind them is a panoramic image of the fields just outside, under a clear blue sky. As the system shuts down, Peridot walks over to you. She sits near your legs.

“This is normally where _I_ rest!”

You close your eyes as a response. Peridot mumbled for a second, and then laid beside you.


	2. Chapter 2

You are PERIDOT

“Goodbye, Steven!”

“See ya later, Peridot! Don’t do anything fun without me!”

He waved his right arm while walking at a medium pace out of the barn’s entrance, which was 57% open, headed N 12° E towards the gem headquarters. Hopping on lion, he ripped himself temporarily from existence. That part made you uncomfortable.

You walk over to a stack of nondescript wooden crates, and push the top one off the pile. It fell, accelerating at 9.8 meters per second per second. That had taken some getting used to. Homeworld had been huge and dense, favoring much stronger geological forces. Acceleration due to gravity was, on average, around 15 m/s2. Oh, nostalgia…the crate hit the hardwood floor with a muffled thud.

Opening the crate that had been underneath, you reveal Lapis. She covered her face with her arms, but you could still see the tears. You look away, always unsure how to deal with emotions, whether they be yours or anyone else's. She wipes the tears away, the droplets smearing on her hydrophilic surface.

“Are you-”

“I’ll be fine.”

Steven always showed up unexpectedly, and Lapis had ‘gone to find somewhere to live’ a few days ago. You didn't know why she was embarrassed to stay with you, and you weren't the type of gem to ask. Plus, the companionship was welcome. You had your rants, of course, and an audience was a great thing to have. But also, there was something about the way sharing space with another living being felt...correct. Lapis had her enigmatic reasons as well, probably. At least she never argued with you.

You offered a hand to help her step out of the crate. She ignored it, jumping out gracefully. She was staring out the door of the barn. Her gem was glistening in the light, sparkling like the ocean. These moments happened often with her, she would become distant for long stretches of time. She was probably thinking about something. There is no point in letting time pass when you’re immortal, so why idle?

The sun was setting, but there would still be a few hours of daylight. A gust of wind blew through the gaping hole in the side of the barn, interrupting both your and Lapis’ trains of thought.

“Oh yeah, I...need to fix that,” you say, absentmindedly.

You look towards her face, looking for some kind of recognition, but she returned to staring, just facing the other way. You walk further back in the barn, to the neatly organized tool storage area. The Greg human had taken most of the clutter required to sustain Steven while you all worked on the drill, as well as some other things that he wanted to save. Now the barn was more open, and you had been spending the past few weeks to clean it.

You pick tools from the wall, placing them in a duffel bag. The circular saw, power drill, hammer, crowbar, magnet tray, and gloves. The first thing you have to do is remove all the shattered wood that remained after you broke through. The others had helped you erect support struts to prevent the roof from caving in a while ago, so you are pretty much free to do whatever. But you liked consistency and continuity, so you planned on just replacing the wood. This would be a different type of construction than you were used to, with a different set of tools, but it couldn’t be _that_ difficult. Pearl had explained the new tools, so you were able to do this.

Turning around, you find that Lapis is gone. That's not unusual. She does that sometimes. She was definitely feeling trapped in the crate earlier, so she was probably out in space somewhere. You envied her freedom, and realized the irony in how trapped she felt.

You pick up the ladder from where it was leaning against the wall, and make your way to the hole. Greg had helped you clear the area, and even started filling in the roof. But the wall was still missing, and the loft was destroyed on the entire right side of the barn. For now, you set your supplies on the ground, and begin removing the wall planks.

There is a rhythm to building, something that you had not noticed for centuries until Steven explained what music is. The outer planks were attached with nails, the inner support beams with screws. Dig with the hammer’s claw end. Lift the nail a few millimeters. Switch to the crowbar. Set it under the head of the nail. Pull the nail out. Put the nail on the magnet tray. Switch to the hammer. Dig, pull, switch, [rest]. Set, pull, plink, switch.

You got lost in the work, you didn’t go set up the lights until after you had to turn on your gem light to find them. The vertically arranged planks were the easy part. Now you were on the roof, clearing the asphalt roofing shingles away from the surface. There was some water damage on the neglected wood, you would have to replace more than you initially expected. You are just tossing the shingles off, onto the pile where you had collected them from the initial wreckage. The darkness is fuller now, the waning crescent moon high in the sky. You take off your gloves, and lie down for a moment.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ok so theres been a lot of updates in the show since the beginning of this fic, so kinda just...let this chapter exist pre-Alone at Sea. That's being covered in coming chapters

You are LAPIS LAZULI

You loosen control on the water particles, shards of ice form and float around your drifting body. You close your eyes, shutting out the blue glow from behind and stars in front of you. You used to think that the universe was a puzzle, where you just didn’t have a place, but after your return to Earth, you realized everything was too complex for that. You can’t reduce all of existence to a simple metaphor.

Opening your eyes, the planet was growing closer. Why fight it? You let yourself fall. The rotation of the earth sends you into darkness.

Half an hour passes; the highest clouds are now rushing past you. The ocean is pulling at you, but you start to glide, refusing to be dragged down. The warmth of the troposphere greets you at the same time as the approaching land, guarded by a stone giant. You steer clear of the gem headquarters and city lights, towards the barn.

Peridot was slumped, her chin resting on her chest, her hammer laying just out of reach of her hand. You stepped forward, debating whether to interfere. It seemed too early to give Peridot a reason to think that you care about her in any way. At least, you want it to stay ambiguous for a bit.

But that position is putting stress on her form, and what if she fell over and rolled off? You go over to her, and carefully lie her down on the roof. The work lights are illuminating the both of you from below, and just outside the glare, you can make out the nighttime glow of the city in the distance. You can’t see the stars that had surrounded you before. The abrasive surface of the roof was holding your consciousness in the moment, the gem in front of you held your thoughts.

You had not been stressing yourself much, and was not in need of any rest yourself. There was no reason to escape reality, you wanted to stay here for some time. Peridot had left the area a mess, with the discarded shingles and planks scattered below. You live here too, you guess. Leaving Peridot’s side, you effortlessly glide down from the barn. Getting one of the crates from the barn, you focus on finding the next piece.

Maybe you were starting to come to terms with this sort of half-freedom. You would never have your old life back, Homeworld had made sure of this. You weren’t trying to come to any sort of conclusion right now. After some time, you had carefully picked up every piece of asphalt from the dirt. Peridot would probably wake up soon, if that’s the equivalent of whatever type of gem activity qualifies as “not resting.”

The thought of her coming down and talking to you did not seem…appealing. Part of you wanted to disappear again. But like, you already were escaping the Crystal Gems. You had created this situation to be able to hide without effort, and it involved trusting Peridot. You didn’t need to run any further.

You figured that the work lights were no longer necessary, so you went around turning them off. Without their glare, you could just see the peach sunrise to the east, over the water. You turned around to the sound of tiny feet stepping down the ladder.

“Oh, Lazuli, uh…thanks.”

You look away and relax your fists, which you had involuntarily clenched. “It, it was no problem”

Peridot starts to turn away, a little disoriented. “Well, I appreciate it.”


End file.
